


The Perfect Christmas

by Providentially_Demonic



Category: Mystery Skulls Animated
Genre: Christmas, Gift Exchange, OT3, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-28
Updated: 2017-12-28
Packaged: 2019-02-23 02:30:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13180488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Providentially_Demonic/pseuds/Providentially_Demonic
Summary: Arthur is a little invested in trying to make everything just perfect this Christmas.*A gift fic written for morsprocella for the MSA Holiday Exchange over on Tumblr. They asked for Ot3 fluff especially if it's festive.





	The Perfect Christmas

Sometimes it was hard to know what Arthur was thinking, even after reconciliations had been made and the relationship between the three of them had made its first tentative steps in a new direction. The joy that had lit his face when they had all confessed their feeling for each other had been unfeigned and blinding.

But Arthur had lost a lot of the more carefree attitude that Lewis remembered him having. He was a little skittish, though he did his best to hide it.

So that was what was making his current overly-cheery attitude a little disturbing.

He was wearing a gleefully ugly christmas sweater Vivi had given him a couple of years back and was engaged in a spirited discussion of the merits of one type of christmas tree over another with the seller. Vivi was dancing from one tree in the yard to the next, joyfully exclaiming over each, cheeks red in the cold air.

Lewis was enjoying watching her, but he was keeping a careful eye on Arthur, who had moved on to asking about the best method for keeping the tree looking good during the holidays.

Vivi suddenly made a high-pitched sound of joy and began jumping in place, her scarf flailing wildly with the movement. “That one! That one, that one, that one! It’s perfect!”

Arthur’s head came up like a startled dog and he zeroed in on where Vivi was pointing.

It was a massive spruce, the branches on the bottom well over four feet around and at least nine feet tall at the tip.

Much as he wanted to make her happy, Lewis frowned doubtfully. “Are you sure? I think that might be a little big for the living room.”

Vivi pouted dramatically at him. “No, it’s not! We can make it fit.” The look in her eyes promised that he had better help in that regard. He hadn’t tried modifying their shared apartment yet— though he’d experimented with one of the vacant ones on same floor, trying to expand the inner dimensions without changing the outer ones. He was still learning about just what he could do with his abilities. “It’s perfect! Arthur thinks so too, right?”

Arthur nodded, smiling at Vivi. “If you think it’s the perfect tree, then it must be the perfect tree.”

Vivi squeaked and flung her arms around Arthur’s neck, kissing him soundly on the cheek.

Arthur flushed but slung an arm around her waist. “I guess we found the perfect one,” he grinned at the seller. “We’ll take it.”

The seller quoted a price and Lewis blinked. That was a little much, even for a tree of that size. He sucked in a breath and adjusted his sunglasses. “Um, doesn’t that seem like—”

Arthur pulled out his wallet. “I got this, big guy. Small price to pay for the perfect tree.”

Lewis noticed Vivi quirk an eyebrow, but she said nothing as Arthur paid for the tree. The seller helped them tie it atop the van and threw in a wreath when he handed Arthur his receipt..

Arthur drove home, ‘hmm’ing and nodding to Vivi’s enthusiastic chatter about how they were going to decorate it. Lewis sat in the back, holding the wreath and wondering just why Arthur’s enthusiasm seemed just a little bit… off.

Lewis helped carry the tree upstairs and with several minutes of concentration (and some helpful coaching from Mystery), managed to tweak the dimensions of the living room so the tree fit. Shortly afterwards, Arthur helped Lewis carry up boxes of decorations from their storage unit in the basement of the building. Lewis summoned his deadbeats to help with the lights while Arthur made sure the tree was secure in its base.

The antics of the deadbeats soon had Vivi laughing uproariously, because, when excited, the deadbeats resembled nothing so much as overactive kittens. There was much tangling of the lights and batting ornaments across the room before Lewis decided it was a bad idea and shooed them off to play with a package of tinsel. At least that he could clean up and wouldn’t have to worry about them breaking.

Vivi went at it like a general after that, directing both of them on everything from the number of strings of lights to the placement of the ornaments. She scrutinized everything, directing both of them with,  _“Higher!_ No— one more branch to the left. That’s it! Perfect!”

Arthur followed her instructions like he’d been born to it, only satisfied when Vivi had pronounced perfection on each ornament and candy canes placing. When everything was to her satisfaction, Lewis floated up and placed the star on the top of the tree.

Vivi kissed his cheek and Arthur’s after he rejoined them on the floor. “Absolutely wonderful,” she enthused. “It’s just right!”

Arthur sighed and smiled at her. “Good. That makes me happy.”

The next day, Arthur and Lewis went out to pick up groceries, a normal enough activity, but Arthur kept questioning him on what he considered a perfect christmas dinner. Lewis grinned and said a perfect dinner would be getting to spend it with his family and Arthur and Vivi.

“”Not what I meant, big guy.” Arthur flushed and rubbed the back of his neck in a habitual gesture of embarrassment. “I meant for the actual foods. Vivi— she wants you to be able to eat christmas dinner, so she’s researching charms that will let you eat, at least for a little while. She says if she can’t work it out, though, she’s gonna let you borrow her body for a bit so you can. It won’t bug her, that girl can eat twice her weight, so she’ll happily eat more later, but y’know, we need to know what foods you would want for dinner.”

Lewis shook his head, a warm feeling in his nonexistent stomach. Trust Vivi to care so much. “She doesn’t have to do that.”

Arthur chuckled wryly. “She will anyway. You know her.” He tossed a box of cereal in the cart; something filled with sugar and colors not found in nature. “So spill before she decides to go ask your folks.”

Mama would undoubtedly tell her and then insist they come over so she could make all of them for him. Lewis didn’t want that. He wanted to spend time with his family, but not with Mama and Papa trying so hard to make foods for him to taste. When Arthur had turned back to the cereal, Lewis replaced his choice with something a little healthier, ‘hmm’ing thoughtfully. He wanted Arthur to stop running on energy drinks and quick (and usually bad for him) snacks. “I guess just little finger foods, like Mama and Papa always did. Since Christmas was always about family, they didn’t want to spend all day in the kitchen, so we always just had things that could be prepped ahead of time and snack on during the day.”

Arthur turned back and put his original choice of cereal back in the cart with a defiant look, but he didn’t try to take out the other box. “Okay, that’s cool, but what kind of things? What do we need to get for them?”

 _Oh._ Lewis thought wistfully on the variety of finger foods his parents always had. Closing his eyes, he pulled up the ingredients of some of his favorites from memories of helping Mama and Papa prep them for Christmas. He mentally crossed off a few of the spicier ones, because he didn’t want to have things Arthur couldn’t eat, and began to recite an ingredient list, mostly to himself.

Lewis opened his eyes to see Arthur frantically scribbling on the back of Vivi’s hastily jotted grocery list. “Arthur? What?”

Arthur finished writing and shoved the paper at him. “Make sure I didn’t miss anything, willya? My note-taking skills are a little rusty.”

Blinking, Lewis took the paper from him and read over Arthur’s cribbed handwriting. “Just eggs. Arthur, we don’t need to—”

Arthur waved a hand to cut him off, taking the list back with his other hand and hastily noting eggs on it. “No. We do. Help me find all these things, okay?”

Lewis scowled down at him, but Arthur was not deterred, grabbing his hand and hauling Lewis after him. He checked against the list in his metal hand constantly, questioning on which brand he thought was the best for each ingredient. Lewis humored him until Arthur insisted on picking out the most expensive brand, when Lewis told him the cheaper one would do. “He took the bottle out of Arthur’s grasp. “You’re going overboard, Artie,” he scolded gently, replacing the bottle and taking the other, less-expensive one to add to the cart. “This one is fine. We don’t have to go crazy on this.”

Arthur scowled and swapped the bottles, defiantly placing himself between the display shelf and Lewis to keep him from switching bottles again. “I am not going overboard. I just want things to be absolutely right.”

Lewis, ignoring the other customers nearby, reached out and cupped Arthur’s cheek. “It will be. You’re stressing over the little things, when the big one is already right there and absolutely perfect.”

Arthur mmmed and leaned his head into Lewis’s hand, his eyes slipping closed for a second. “It is?” his voice sounded heartbreakingly uncertain.

Lewis brushed a kiss over his forehead. “It is. We’re all here, together. Nothing could be better than that.”

That seemed to do the trick, because Arthur’s shoulders sagged as if a weight had been lifted off of them. After that, he seemed far more amenable to Lewis’s suggestions, though if there was any debate on which was the better product, he insisted on the higher price one, unless Lewis flat out told him that a cheaper brand was better in quality. Still— the total was far more than Lewis was comfortable with, but Arthur paid for everything without a flinch.

When they had returned home, Lewis put the groceries up while Arthur headed off for a shift at the garage.

Vivi wandered into the kitchen while he was working and hopped up to sit on the counter, putting canned goods in the cabinet above her when Lewis handed them to her. “What’s the matter, Boo?” She asked, raising a foot to block him from going past her.

Lewis thought he’d been keeping his thoughts hidden, and Vivi snorted at his look, poking him with her toes. “Your hair keeps flickering and spitting off sparks. That only happens when you have something on your mind troubling you.”

Lewis ducked his head. He’d have to work harder at that. It wouldn’t do to give himself away in public. Quietly, with many pauses to gather his thoughts, Lewis told Vivi all the small things that had been troubling him about Arthur’s actions lately.

When he finished, Vivi sat there quietly for a long moment, her eyes distant and thoughtful. She made a soft sound deep in her throat and looked a little concerned herself.

“I think—” she said at last. “That he’s trying too hard.”

“Too hard?”

“Mmhmm,” she nodded. “Too hard to make it all—” she waved her hands in the air for a moment. “Perfect for us. That’s a word he’s used a lot lately. Perfect. He went shopping with me the other day, looking for, I quote, ‘the perfect gift for Lewis,’ and he wasn’t satisfied until I assured him that it was perfect and you would love it.” She pursed her lips thoughtfully. “I think he’s pushing himself to do everything for us, but not actually enjoying the holiday, not when he’s trying so hard to make it all ‘perfect’ for us.”

Lewis had to admit that she had a point. Arthur seemed far more interested in making certain that the holiday was perfect for Lewis and Vivi and not in enjoying it himself. For example, in the van earlier, while Lewis knew Arthur loved the funny and decidedly twisted christmas songs like [“Christmas at Ground Zero”](http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dt039p6xqutU&t=YTBjYTcyNjM4MTViYTk5ODgzNjc0NTA4OTIxOGQzNTM5MWFjNzUzMixwZllBRWtDVw%3D%3D&b=t%3A5C_n3FhkDOWPoqw7gYOJBQ&p=https%3A%2F%2Fprovidentially-demonic.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F168942889950%2Fthe-perfect-christmas&m=1) or [“Away in a Madhouse,”](http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DWnG8nOK7nqM&t=OTlkYjBiMWI4NGE4MmVlNDE1NWEzN2VmZDllNTBhM2E4NjA5ZjEyOSxwZllBRWtDVw%3D%3D&b=t%3A5C_n3FhkDOWPoqw7gYOJBQ&p=https%3A%2F%2Fprovidentially-demonic.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F168942889950%2Fthe-perfect-christmas&m=1) he’d insisted on putting in a Mannheim Steamroller CD he knew Lewis loved. It had felt decidedly surreal not having Arthur gleefully belting out the dark lyrics of some of his favorite holiday songs.

“We need to show him—” Lewis began

“That it  _can’t_  be perfect without him,” Vivi finished decisively for him, thwacking her palms down on the counter with a loud slap. “Trees and presents and food are all well and good, but he’s what we need for it to be perfect, not any of those things! Right, Lew?”

Lewis could only nod agreement.

Vivi hopped down from the counter. “Great! Let’s go!”

“Go where?” Lewis questioned, swept along in her wake by the sheer force of her enthusiasm.

“To kidnap an Artie-bae and convince him that he doesn’t have to make things perfect, that they are just because he’s with us!” she declared, grabbing the spare set of keys from the candy dish by the door. Arthur had left the van, walking the two blocks to his uncle’s shop.

“Right now? Vivi, he just went to work!” Lewis protested, but followed her out the door and to the van.

“Doesn’t matter.” Vivi waved his concern off. “Lance will forgive us once we tell him why we stole Artie.”

“Better to ask forgiveness than beg permission, eh?”

“Right-o. We need to show a certain person it’s him we need, not all the trimmings and trappings.”

Lewis chuckled and boosted her up into the driver’s seat.

She grinned at him enthusiastically and started the engine. “Here’s the plan— I’ll run a distraction while you snag an Artie. Then we—”

Lewis put a finger across her lips, smiling at her gently. “I may have a better idea.”

“Mmm?” She mumbled against his finger.

Lewis went around the van and climbed in the passenger seat. “Simple. It’s almost noon. We tell Lance that Arthur was supposed to go out to lunch with us. He wasn’t, but Lance doesn’t know that and Arthur won’t object. We can steal him away without him suspecting anything.”

Vivi’s eyes brightened and she shot him a wide grin as she put the van in gear and pulled out onto the street. “Ooh, I like. I didn’t know you could be this sneaky?”

Lewis returned her grin, tugging his sunglasses down to give her a wink.  _“Maayy-beee,”_ he drawled.

Lance didn’t put up a fight, in fact he all but shoved Arthur at them. “G’wan, get him outta my hair. Feed him and let him work off some a’ that energy somewhere that ain’t my shop.”

Vivi saluted sharply while Lewis hustled a protesting Arthur into the van. “But I have work to finish—”

“It’s a simple transmission check on Mrs. Howell’s caddie. I can do that in my sleep. Now get outta here with them.”

“Yessir!” Vivi reached over to snag Arthur’s hand. “C’mon, You got your orders, bucko!”

Arthur let her and Lewis manhandle him into the middle of the front seat, sandwiched between her and Lewis. As she pulled away from the garage, he grumped at her, “Was this really necessary?”

“Yep,” Vivi popped the ‘p’ as she swung a left and pulled into the drive-through of a McDonalds.

Arthur’s lips pulled sideways in a rueful smile. “I know you didn’t all but kidnap me just to hit Micky-D’s, Vivi.”

“Not really, but I’m starving and you need to eat anyway…” She adopted a obnoxiously loud voice that sounded like a cranky version of her grandmother. “You’re so skinny. You look like the wind could blow you over. You need to eat more.”

“Vivs, you are starting to creep me out. You should not sound like your grandmom.” Arthur pulled a face as she rolled down the window and leaned out. “Also, she would never tell me to eat more. Might whack me with her cane, but…”

“Shoosh, you!” Vivi scolded before turning to her attention to the drive-through speaker. “Yeah, can I get like three— no, four orders of chicken nuggets, two large fries, and a mocha frap, please? And what did you want, Artie?”

Arthur rolled his eyes at her, “A cheeseburger and small fry. Nothing to drink though, there’s an energy drink in the cooler in the back.”

Vivi blew her bangs out of her eyes. “And two cheeseburgers— you know what— make those double-cheeseburgers and another large fry.”

The tentative voice on the other end of the speaker told her her total and advised her to pull forward, while Arthur huffed sourly. “Vivi—”

“I told you, you need to eat more. I am not having you shrivel up on me!”

“I’m not going to shrivel up on you, Vi!”

“Not listening.” She pulled up to the first window and passed her money to the teen, who looked far more relaxed when he saw there were three of them in the car.

“She has a point,” Lewis elbowed Arthur. “You don’t eat enough… or right, but being that we’re at McDonald’s—”

Vivii shot him a dirty look. “We need food. I am not doing this on an empty stomach. And at least it’s not Taco Smell.”

An apprehensive look flitted over Arthur’s face. “Doing what exactly?”

Vivi focused all her attention on getting the change back and pulling up to the second window, leaving Lewis to squirm uncomfortably as Arthur’s gaze turned his way. “Um… well…”

“Lewis—” The way Arthur dragged out his name made him twitch in his seat.

Vivi, now safely stopped at the second window, caught the collar of Arthur’s vest and tugged him over, stopping his questions with a kiss that left him panting and dazed. She shoved him back into Lewis, who almost automatically wrapped his arm around the smaller blond.

“Foodage now, talky-talk after,” Vivi tapped her finger against the tip of Arthur’s nose as he stared at her, wide-eyed. “So shoosh. I promise— it’s nothing bad.” She cupped his cheek in one hand and smiled at him, lacing the fingers of her other hand through his hair in a soothing stroke. “Trust me, willya?”

Still shivering with reaction, Arthur nodded slowly, almost unconsciously leaning back into Lewis.

Lewis tightened his arm and raised his temperature a little, hoping that it would work to calm Arthur a little.

Arthur said nothing more until after they had their food and Vivi turned the van onto the road out of town, taking the turnoff to Deacon’s Bluff, a seldom used stretch of road that ran up the hills that surrounded Tempo. She pulled the van off the road at Lighthouse Point, named for the tower of stone that time and wind had shaped naturally into a facsimile of a lighthouse. Parking in the shadow of the tower, she killed the engine and turned in her seat to face them, taking a slow sip of her drink.

“What’s going on?” Arthur asked plaintively, still leaning into Lewis. He’d wrapped his arms, flesh and metal both, around his own abdomen in an unconsciously defensive posture.

Vivi sighed and popped a nugget into her mouth, chewing contemplatively for a moment.

“Vivi?” Arthur pled.

With another sigh, she abandoned her food and squirmed closer until Arthur was sandwiched between her and Lewis, leaning into him as much as he was leaning into Lewis.

“Artie… Look at me.” She reached up to turn his face down to hers. “You know Lew and I both love you, right?”

Arthur shivered hard. “That sounds suspiciously like the prelude to a ‘But…’ ” He murmured, his voice thick and trembling on the edge of breaking.

“No,” Lewis broke in sharply. “No. No buts.  There is no but about our loving you. This is about us loving you enough to make you look after you.”

“Eh?” Arthur squirmed. “Lewis, I’m fine. I know you worry about my eating and sleeping habits but you cannot blame Vivi’s grease-capade on me.”

“Hey!” Vivi protested, poking Arthur’s ribs.

“Not talking about that either. I’m talking about you running yourself ragged to make Christmas perfect for Vivi and I. Everything just so and you wearing yourself out trying so hard.”

“Yeah,” Vivi interjected. “It’s not perfect, not by a long shot.”

“Wha—?”

Lewis bent his head and pressed a kiss to Arthur’s temple. “Stop trying so hard. Make some time to enjoy the holiday with us, not trying so hard to make everything great for us that we barely see you.”

“I—”

“Seriously, Artie, it can’t be perfect if it’s not about all of us together. It’s only perfect with you in it.” Vivi said, reaching up to press a kiss on his lips. “The trimmings and the tree don’t matter at all if you aren’t sharing it and enjoying it with us.”

“All I want for Christmas is you?” Arthur cracked a wobbly smile.

“There is a reason that’s a classic, you know.” Lewis added with his own smile. “That’s what we need to be happy.”

“I have everything I need right here, “ Vivi laughed, waving a hand to indicate the two men she was pressed against and the van that surrounded them. “Well, minus a smart-aleck dog, but let’s not tell him that, okay?”

Arthur breathed a shaky sigh. “C-can we just stay here for a bit? I don’t think I’m up to going back home just yet. My stomach’s still all knotted up.”

Vivi reached over the back of the seat and snagged the blanket in the back seat, pulling it over all of them. It smelled slightly of dog, but it had never been warmer. “I think that’s _just_ perfect.”


End file.
